So How Many Americans Actually Pay No Taxes?

It’s that time of year again — tax week. With the deadline for Americans to file their income taxes looming, there’s a good chance you’ve heard or will hear from politicians, on cable news and on talk radio about those who pay little or no taxes.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said that we “have a situation in this country where you’re nearing 50 percent of people who don’t even pay income taxes.” There are even those who say that there are nearly 50 percent of Americans who pay no taxes at all.

While it is true that about half of American households pay no federal income tax, the odds that half of Americans are paying no taxes at all are relatively low. Sales taxes, payroll taxes and state taxes make it difficult to avoid paying all taxes completely.

But is it possible? Weekends on All Things Considered wanted to find out, so the first step was narrowing the search to a state with no sales tax: Alaska, Oregon, New Hampshire, Delaware and Montana. John Steinhoff, a certified public accountant in Great Falls, Mont., tells host Guy Raz that it is possible to live legally and pay virtually no taxes.

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From my understanding of the federal income tax there is no law presentable in court to show criminality in not paying it. I read several people took it to court and won on lack of proof of guilt even with all the back-owed documentation. I remember something to the effect F.I.T. was a war tax that was simply never repealed and that NO INCOME TAX goes to infrastructure like building roads but instead goes TO PAY FOR WARS.

Men With Sticks

>“have a situation in this country where you’re nearing 50 percent of people who don’t even pay income taxes.”

Clearly, the bottom 50% of earners are not paying their fair share.

Smmcfarland

Actually it means that the bottom 50%–which is an inaccurate figure–don’t have enough income coming in to pay taxes, It’s sad that in this country so many people earn so little. However, the figure itself is wrong but the numbers include elderly and disabled on SSA, part time workers and those working full time on minimum wage. These folks pay lots of taxes, just not federal taxes. I believe it was the teaparty who insisted that they are taxed too much already. So now they whine when those with little income pay no federal taxes? They pay state taxes, real estate taxes whether they own or rent, they pay SSA and Medicare tax as well as all the other payroll taxes. The proportion of income that goes to tax far exceeds what the higher income people pay.

D.D.B.

I think Men With Sticks was being sarcastic.

http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

Half of all Americans includes children, the elderly and the disabled.
How many working Americans pay taxes?
The 99% (aka the majority) pays most of the taxes.

Interestingly, when the Banksters need $7.8 trillion
the FED didn’t need taxes or even loans to fund them.
A couple of key strokes and voila
$7.8 trillion appears.
So, why not skip the tax farce?
Print a little extra and keep the Monopoly money for yourself.